


Of the blue Reaperless sky and blue children

by Viktorfell



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Grunt is a good boi, Happy Ending, Multi, My First Fanfic, Other, Paragon Shepard (Mass Effect), Shepard/Liara wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27451096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viktorfell/pseuds/Viktorfell
Summary: Once reaching the Citadel, John Shepard was determined by one image alone - Liara's face. He wanted to see Liara again, spend his life with her, to never leave her side.Seeing Jacob so proud and happy when he knew he was going to be a father, it made Shepard to want the same thing. To have beautiful children, to have a family. All that with Liara, the one he loved. To be with her for the rest of his life.
Relationships: Garrus Vakarian/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Male Shepard/Liara T'Soni
Kudos: 4





	Of the blue Reaperless sky and blue children

**Author's Note:**

> What happens at the end of Mass Effect 3? Darn stupid things, if you ask me. Three blue lights? Seriously?! This is the re-imagining of the ending of the Mass Effect trilogy, a fanfic that was at first written somewhere around 2013, left alone for few years while the author built his English skills, then looked up again, built on top of it here and there over the years...  
> And now, at the last quarter of the year 2020, looked up again, fixed some errors and brought to the good people of the AO3 the day after N7 day of 2020, celebrating the news that we are getting a remastered version of the trilogy next year!
> 
> I left writing be for years when I concentrated more on visual arts, but then picked it up when I started to write a fanfic about a Disney show "Owl House". It gave me a new drive for writing, and I looked up this Mass Effect fanfic of mine once again and fixed it up.  
> That being said, please enjoy the fic and if you like it, do leave comments and kudos!

It was right after Commander John Shepard and Captain David Anderson had launched an attack towards a Reaper Conduit in London. It was the only way to reach the Citadel, the center of the galactic civilization, which was moved right next to the planet Earth by Reapers. Anderson and Shepard rallied forward the rest that remained of Anderson's Earth resistance squad, and his two closest crew members, Garrus and Liara, had joined in.  
However, the assault had not gone as they had planned. Many were killed, and Shepard had commanded his team to retreat. Yet he and Anderson carried onward, no matter what. No matter if Harbinger, a giant Reaper, had blasted laser beams at them.  
Upon entering the Citadel, Shepard felt like he was about to die. He crashed down after getting up there and almost didn't want to get up. He had given his all, he had got a direct hit from Harbinger's laser. His body wanted to give in. Could he just let it rest already?  
But everytime he thought about the crew on Normandy, hell, the united forces of the galaxy, fighting for their lives against the Reapers on the surface of Earth and around the said planet, it kept his mind working, from succumbing to the thoughts of giving up. He imagined how humans fought besides many known species: turians, asari, krogan, salarians, batarians.. He saw the faces of his Normandy crew flying and dodging Reapers, Joker and EDI giving their best on the helm and Garrus calibrating the hell out of the main gun, Tali and engineers keeping everything running...  
And then, around all the faces in his mind, Liara's shined through it all. Shepard's body started moving and he somehow got himself up. Liara, his beautiful blue asari lady, was waiting for him to come back. He promised he would. He groaned and started limbing forward.  
“Shepard.”  
Shepard froze for a second. Anderson's voice was on the comm. “Anderson? You up here too?”  
“Yes... I followed you up, but we didn't come up in the same place. At least I don't think we did. What your surroundings look like?”  
“Looking a lot like the Collector base”, Shepard grunted and kept moving.  
“I remember your reports about that place. Yes, I can see the resemblance. Meet me at... AAAARGH!”  
“Anderson!” Shepard shouted. “What happened?”  
Only the silence answered him. Shepard cursed and got himself moving, rather painfully, towards a lit hallway.

What he found was something much more than just a lit hallway. It was the center of the Citadel, right in the central ring. Around him he could see the Citadel's closed arms and the lights all around the mighty construct. How many had left their lights on after fleeing? Or did they even have a chance to flee? Shepard did not want to think of that. He lowered his gaze to the shining center of the Citadel.  
In the middle of the platform stood the Illusive Man.  
“You”, Shepard growled and limbed towards him.  
“Shepard”, the Illusive Man greeted without turning to face the Spectre. He acted very high and mighty compared to the fact that he was all that was left of Cerberus, a ruthless anti-alien organization he had created. “I was hoping you would get here in time. Still”, he took one step showing a hardly moving body of David Anderson, “I wasn't expecting to see him.”  
“Anderson!” Shepard gasped and grunted. Sharp breaths were not the wisest idea in his current state.  
“So it was the great captain Anderson after all.” The Illusive Man lighted a cigarette and inhaled the smoke. Once he exhaled, he let out a short snicker. “Though it took only one bullet to take him down.”  
In that very moment, every lost comrade, every lost friend and ally, popped into Shepard's mind – Kaidan, Thane, Legion... from Corporal Richard Jenkins, who had died in the mission to Eden Prime, to many, many crew members who had given their lives when Collectors had first attacked and had managed to kill Shepard for the first time... and now Anderson. Shepard lifted his pistol.  
“I wouldn't do that, if I were you.” The Illusive Man stood there in Shepard's eyesight, with his nonchalant attitude, smoking the cigarette. “You are in no condition to fight, and I have, let's say, upgrades.” He turned to face Shepard.  
Shepard got the first good look at him and knew he was telling the truth. The Illusive Man had the same Reaper technology implanted to his face than the Cerberus trooper Shepard had seen in Mars after leaving Earth – husk-like implants. Blue-ish light shined from his eyes, and the integrated tech crawled like corruption from beneath the man's skin.  
“Why? Why would you do this?” Shepard asked. “You let Reapers control you with those implants and then you willingly alert the enemy! You have doomed the mankind and every other species out there!”  
“Always as naive”, the Illusive Man smirked and looked proud, spreading his arms like to welcome praise of his actions, “I am their savior. Making Reapers move the Citadel here got me a good opening to come to finish the job. Both the Reapers and the organic life, so predictable: first Reapers clean the way over here so I can just walk in with ease and then the Alliance moves Crucible to its place. I can finish this and control the Reapers.”  
“Only way to end this is to destroy the Reapers, and I am not letting you to sabotage it!” Shepard raised his voice, growing tired of the man in front of him. “Don't you understand that the fate of this world is right here, right now?”  
“Oh, I understand, even better than you. Years of scientific experiments and Cerberus funding has finally paid off. My scientists spent years trying to figure out the Reaper technology and the genius ways of indoctrination. From the great Citadel, I will control the Reapers and make humans the most feared and genius race of all times!”  
“Can't you see that they are controlling you?” Shepard asked, still pointing his pistol at his enemy.  
The Illusive Man began to laugh. His maniac laughter echoed in the center of Citadel, even after he heard the gunshot and saw blood tipping down from his chest. He coughed and fell to the floor, never moving again.  
“Anderson!” Shepard gasped when he saw his old captain on his knees, holding a pistol. “You're alive!”  
“At least for a moment”, Anderson said quietly and grinned dryly, “unlike he said, one single bullet ain't taking me down. My vest absorbed the most of the damage. I tried to wait for the right moment to take him down myself.”  
“I could have done this”, Shepard said while limping towards Anderson.  
“I know it. But this is a critical point and we don't need you convincing every bad half-husk guy to shoot himself.”  
Shepard let a little grin on his face before taking a serious look. “We need to use the Crucible. Now.”  
“It is now or never. Go, Shepard, I will catch you up.”

In the center of the ring, quite near where the Illusive Man met his end, was a control panel. Shepard limped a little faster to reach it.  
He barely had any strength left, but he kept going. Liara's image in his mind guided him. Like Javik had once pointed out in his quarters on the Normandy, Shepard and Liara had joined. Human and asari, best friends and bondmates. Shepard did not want to give up. He wanted to see Liara again, spend his life with her, to never leave her side.  
Seeing Jacob so proud and happy when he knew he was going to be a father, it made Shepard to want the same thing. To have beautiful children, to have a family. All that with Liara, the one he loved. To be with her for the rest of his life.  
And both Jacob and Garrus had promised to buy drinks when all this was over.  
Shepard was truly happy when he saw love flowering in his crew: he couldn't think any other couple that complemented each other better than Garrus and Tali (after him and Liara, of course). He wanted to ensure a good future to his two close friends. So many had helped him on the way, and it was Shepard himself who had pushed EDI and Joker to take a chance and let love win, even during the war. He was not letting all that to go to waste.  
After using all of his strength to limp to the control panel, he didn't know what to do after he managed to open up Citadel's arms. He decided to contact Hackett.  
“Commander? What is your status?”  
“Admiral, I am in the middle ring of the Citadel, right in front of what seems to be the Crucible”, Shepard replied, looking at ominous big round object hovering on top of the ring. “I don't know how to proceed.”  
“Our scientists figured out the last step from the blueprints. I believe doctor T'Soni has some of her own researches included. It appears that you need to concentrate your mind while physically contacted to the panel. Doctor theorized that your link with Prothean beacon could help things along.”  
“I will try it. Keep fighting.”  
“Same to you. Good luck. Hackett out.”  
Shepard touched the panel, and the holographic essence seemed to grab his hands. He concentrated all his thoughts towards the panel, trying to reach into his Prothean link. Was it even possible to do so?  
Panel started to glow faintly. Shepard concentrated even more, closing his eyes. He thought about the chaos the Reapers caused and every bad thing that has happened because of them. He kept thinking how easily a Reaper can be destroyed through its weak spot.

“You cannot stop them.”  
Shepard opened his eyes. It was dark all over him, only a dim light around him.  
The Illusive Man stood right there in front of him.  
“You cannot stop the Reapers.”  
Shepard was confused. He took a step backwards, grabbing his pistol – that wasn't there.  
“Illusive Man? I thought Anderson killed you!”  
“You are trying to prolong the Cycle. You cannot do it. No one can.”  
The shape of the Illusive Man changed, to that of doctor Bryson, the one who studied the long-lost Leviathans on the Citadel.  
Shepard remembered how the Leviathan, a being of an ancient race, spoke to him through his mind, using the shapes of different people. He looked at what looked like doctor Bryson and said:  
“You are the Intelligence.”  
“Correct. I was made by Leviathans to ensure the existence of life in the galaxy. We created a solution: a cycle where no one creates synthetic creations that can kill them.”  
“Right now you are the only one killing the life in the galaxy!”  
“Incorrect. What you are referring to bringing order to the chaos. We help older life forms to ascend, allowing new life to flourish, while preserving the old life forever in Reaper form.”  
“I think we'd rather keep our own form.”  
“Impossible. Sooner or later you will create an artificial intelligence so powerful it will kill you all. The cycle keeps it from happening.”  
After a bit of questioning the Intelligence changed shape from Bryson to many scientists and other beings that fought against Shepard. Shepard tried to find a way out.  
“Can I do anything to stop you?” Shepard asked.  
“Now that the Crucible is at its place and you are right at the control station, my solution is no longer valid. A new solution must be found. You have a choice: join your mind with the control station and release the energy of the Crucible. It will deactivate all synthetic life and all your technology. Even the mass relays.”  
“But the Reapers will be dead?”  
“Correct.”  
“What is the other choice?”  
“Leave and release the Crucible, let the cycle to face its end. The choice is yours.”  
After this the shape that looked like Udina at this point, vanished and a bright light blinded Shepard.

He was at the center of the Citadel. Again. The control panel had still its holographic grab on his hands. He concentrated on the death of the Reapers. He imagined the weak spots and how he had taken down two Reapers, one on Rannoch and another one in London.  
Intelligence's voice echoed once more through his mind.  
“So be it.”  
Shepard saw the control panel starting to glow. The Crucible above him started to activate, a dim light around its edges starting to light up. He concentrated, thought about the exact spot where you can shoot the Reaper and it will die. That even if they were huge giant killer synthetics, they were still destroyable.  
Control panel flickered. Crucible shot its beam from Citadel's now opened arms. 

Outside the Citadel in the heat of the battle, the united army of organics started to see that something was happening: an ominous red light hit the Reapers and their forces, gradually making them to fall into pieces. After a moment of confusion, everyone still alive and fighting, in the space or on the surface of the Earth, got new strength and energy to fight and they all knew one thing: Shepard had succeeded.

At the center of the Citadel, everything was far from over. When Reapers realized that someone was using the Crucible, some of them tried to hit it and the Citadel before the red beam from the Crucible made them fall apart. One of the Reapers' beams hit the central ring, right to the point where the Citadel and the Crucible were connected. The floor below Shepard started to falter.  
“Anderson!” Shepard yelled, trying to find his old captain. “We need to get out of here!”  
He limbed towards the veteran who had managed to sit against a nearest wall. No response.  
“Anderson, move your ass, we have to go!”  
No movement.  
“Shit”, Shepard groaned. “Don't you dare to leave me alone in here! Shit..”  
“Commander?” Joker's voice tried to reach Shepard. “Need help?”  
“Perfect timing, Joker”, Shepard answered. “Any chance you could get to the center ring of the Citadel?”  
“Anytime! But, uh... Where exactly?”  
“Just crash to the Citadel and Crucible's connection point and get me the hell out of here!” Shepard yelled and tried to shake Anderson, without any response. “Now!”  
He grabbed Anderson's body, dragged him towards the Normandy when it arrived.  
“Cavalry has arrived!” Joker yelled, with an odd tone.  
“About time”, Shepard said with a serious case of déja vu. 

Back on the Normandy, Chakwas yelled orders to those carrying Anderson's lifeless body and those trying to help Shepard. But the war hero himself just limbed towards the pilot seat, wanting a status report. But once reaching the cockpit, he found out why there was a hollow tone in Joker's voice. Joker was panicking.  
“EDI”, Tali said quietly, with a quivering voice. “And geths...”  
At the mention of EDI, Joker broke into tears. He wiped his tears away while flying the ship and held something near him. A robotic body that once served as the platform to Normandy's soul.  
Shepard almost fell to his knees. “EDI... No.. no...”  
“Commander”, Chakwas tried to get Shepard's attention, “you need medical attention...”  
“What about the geth?” Shepard turned to face Tali.  
Tali had lost her voice. She leaned against Garrus who tried to comfort the shocked quarian.  
“It seems that whatever that red light was, it killed all synthetic life – not only the Reapers, the geth and EDI too”, the turian answered on behalf of Tali.  
“No... it can't be”, Shepard said almost losing his breath and shook his head.  
“But it is”, Tali said with a broken voice. “You united the geth and quarians, made us realize the error in our ways... And Legion sacrificed himself for the sake of his kind and to end this war... Oh, keelah.”  
“Deep breaths, deep breaths”, Garrus said in calming manner and kept his arms around Tali. “They all, EDI, Legion, all geth who fought the Reapers, they are all heroes.”  
For a small moment, only sounds heard were Joker's quiet sobs, Garrus' hushing and EDI's and Legion's voices that echoed through Shepard's memory. He was the one who used the Crucible and shot the energy that killed the synthetics. HE was the one who killed the geth and EDI...  
What snapped him to the present was Chakwas' stern voice:  
“Forgive my straight talk, Commander – declining the medical care is not heroism, it is only stupid.” Shepard realized Chakwas was scanning him with an omnitool. “So please, Commander, let my assistants help you to the med lab.”  
“Are the Reapers dead?” Shepard asked.  
“It is starting to look like so”, Joker managed to reply. He sniffed.  
“Joker, get the contact link to Hackett to the comm room”, Shepard commanded.  
“Commander!” Chakwas rose her voice when Shepard started limping towards the comm room.  
Liara managed to grab commander's hand.  
“Shepard, please, do as Chakwas says and go to the med bay.”  
The first human Spectre looked at his love and was ready to obey her plea when gazing into her beautiful blue eyes, but then Joker said:  
“Commander, Admiral Hackett wants to talk with you immediately in the comm room.”  
Liara sighed and facepalmed and Chakwas glared angrily at Joker, who shrugged and looked more scared than sad for a moment.  
“I am on my way”, Shepard said and started to move, but Liara still had his hand.  
“John Shepard, you are NOT going anywhere EXCEPT to the med bay!” The asari had raised her voice. Everyone was quiet – there was nothing more scary than an angry asari. Not to mention an asari who was also the infamous Shadow Broker. Chakwas continued the emergency scanning on Shepard.  
“Liara, I need to see this through”, Shepard said, his weak hold on the hand of his love and a quiet plea in his eyes. “Please. After I know the situation is under control, I promise I will rest.”  
Liara sighed. A hint of smile appeared on her lips for a moment. “Fine. But you will have to let me and your friends to accompany you.”  
Before Shepard even knew it, he was practically carried by Garrus and Liara.  
“Fine”, he answered and smiled when Tali, Ashley, James, Javik and Cortez followed them.  
Chakwas stayed behind, comforting the heartbroken Joker. 

“Commander, I don't know what you did back at the Crucible, but the Reapers are almost dead. A few biggest, probably the strongest ones, try to fight back but like the others of their kind, they are dying too, slowly but steadily. We are just rushing the process by firing at them. Job well done, Shepard”, Hackett's hologram said in the comm room.  
“That's a relief, sir”, Shepard answered as James high fived Cortez and Ashley in the background. “So... it is over?”  
“Practically, yes”, Hackett said and looked at the small comm room, all the people with Shepard. A rare smile appeared on his face. “And you seem to have a parade with you already.”  
“Commander's badly wounded, sir”, Chakwas said while entering the room, “but he refused to rest.”  
“Everything is under control now, Commander”, Hackett said. He nodded with a smile to Shepard. “It is time for you to rest. Job well done, Shepard. Hackett out.”  
Shepard smiled back and saluted, watching the hologram flicker away. Then he blacked out. The last thing he heard was Liara's voice, yelling his name.

Later that day, Shepard regained consciousness. The fiirst thing he saw was the most beautiful sight he could imagine: Liara was sitting next to him, looking at him with the gentle blue eyes.  
“Liara...” he said weakly. “Where am I?”  
“At the med bay. You fainted, and Garrus and James carried you here. You have been unconscious for several hours. Doctor Chakwas was able to go through your wounds during that time and treated them as well as she could. But she said you are going to need longer time to heal completely.”  
“A-and fleets?”  
“Everything's under control”, Liara assured him, placing a hand on his.  
“How is Tali? And Joker?”  
“Garrus is with Tali, he is comforting her. Chakwas has checked on Joker a few times and Traynor is trying to talk with him. Last I heard, Samantha was able to comfort him a little.”  
Shepard nodded and the guilt creeped on him again. “The geth... they are really gone, are they?”  
“Yes”, Liara answered grimly. “Quarians need to reconstruct Rannoch without them.”  
“They will make it. Now they have their homeworld back again, they can adapt and live without envirosuits and a threat of war. I just hope they have learned their lesson with AI.”  
“I hope so too”, Liara said and smiled. “I'm sure Tali will remind them. She even talked about making a statue for Legion.”  
“How is Anderson?”  
Liara went silent for a moment. Shepard knew the answer even before the asari spoke. “It was too late to save him... Chakwas tried everything but he was already dead of what seemed to be a bullet to the ribs. I'm sorry, Shepard.”  
Shepard shut his eyes for a moment, and they shared the silence for some time before Shepard asked:  
“Any word from Wrex?”  
“Not yet. I heard that mass relays had been destroyed so many ships are landing on Earth and special teams are heading to attempt to reconstruct mass relays. At least our communications are working. All the damage that red light from Crucible caused was on mass relays and the synthetic life. I hope the damage on the mass relays is not permanent.”  
Shepard tried to move, but a single gesture from Liara made him stop. “Everything will be alright”, he said.  
Liara brushed Shepard's hand with her fingers and smiled. “It is all thanks to you, Shepard. You made sure we'll survive and you fought for everyone in the galaxy.”  
Shepard returned the smile. “No, we all did. I couldn't have done it alone.”  
“Always the modest one.”  
Liara leaned and kissed her love's forehead before leaving him to rest.

Two days had passed and then the Normandy landed to London. Practically everything was destroyed and buildings were in ruins, but a sight of dead Reapers made the most smile. Many ships and shuttles had landed to the city where captain Anderson and many brave men had fought before the last moments of the Reapers.  
Humans, turians, batarians, asari, elcor, volus, drell, hanar and krogan alike stood watching when Normandy landed. A moment later Shepard walked out, leaning on a crutch and Liara.  
Chakwas had discovered broken bones in commander's body but after all the emergency treatments Chakwas could use Shepard was able to walk again. At first Chakwas had insisted the Commander to use a wheelchair but Shepard refused and walked with a crutch to keep both Chakwas and Liara somewhat content.  
When he saw the biggest crowd he'd ever seen, he and Liara stopped right on the entryway of the Normandy. Garrus, Tali and James were as shocked.  
“Keelah”, Tali gasped.  
“By the goddess”, Liara seconded.  
“Loco”, James Vega said and whistled.  
Ashley pushed James aside to take a peek of what others were gasping about, with Samantha after her, and the two ladies raised their eyebrows.  
“Now that is a sight”, Ashley commented. Samantha nodded, then silencing the Lieautenant and pointing to the mass.  
Within the huge mass of people was a commotion. Some krogan tried to elbow (and headbutt) their way through the crowd. Suddenly, Shepard recognized the leading krogan in red armor.  
“Wrex”, Shepard said with a smile, watching how the krogan commanded a bunch of krogan into a formation.  
Clan leader Urdnot Wrex, who commanded a big group of krogan from the clan Urdnot to do the krogan salute, grinned and roared with Grunt: “Shepaaaaaard!”  
The crowd followed with applauds. There were cheers, clapping and yelling that could be heard far. 

Then began the reconstruction of everything: Earth cities, the Citadel, mass relays. Fortunately the mass relays weren't totally destroyed and were relatively easy to fix when the greatest minds of the galaxy put their efforts together once more. When first mass relays were fixed – the ones to Thessia, Palaven, Tuchanka, Rannoch and the Omega space – their respective fleets took off.  
Garrus decided to accompany Tali to Rannoch, they both wanted to help to rebuild Rannoch, reserve a nice spot for a house and then have a wedding when things were better. Later on Shepard served as a bestman to Garrus and looked after his new godson Jonah, an orphaned young quarian that Tali and Garrus adopted after the war.  
Before Garrus and Tali had the chance to leave to Rannoch, the message of the demise of Primarch Adrien Victus reached them. The Primarch had died quite near the end of the war, which led into new search for a new Primarch. Story goes that Garrus got offered the title – but he refused and left to Rannoch with Tali.  
Wrex took his leave right after Garrus and Tali. He just grinned and snickered something about repopulating. He invited Shepard and Liara to visit him and Bakara at Tuchanka. When they eventually went to visit, Wrex was beyond proud to present them his first-born son Mordin. He was more proud of his son than the fact that he started to build good relations to other races and keeping the krogan in check.  
Aria left without saying a word. Shepard figured that she had to make sure no one would ever again steal Omega from her. Shepard didn't mind – he really did not want to see anyone repeat what Cerberus' agent General Oleg Petrovsky did.

Liara stayed with Shepard when he wanted to overlook rebuilding of London. “Anderson fought and died for Earth and this city – I'll do this favor for him and see that this city gets back on its feet”, he had said, and Liara respected that.  
They stayed for a few months, and then Shepard wanted to take Liara to Thessia.  
On Thessia they met with Matriarch Aethyta who had come to rebuild her own homeworld. Shepard asked her blessing to marry Liara, and when the asari matriarch nodded for an answer Shepard hurried to propose.  
They had a big wedding on the new rebuilt Thessia's capital – Garrus returned the favor from his wedding to be his friend's bestman and Tali helped Liara with everything as her bridesmaid. Tali and Garrus' adopted son Jonah wanted to carry Liara's veil and dared Grunt to join him and throw flower petals on the way to the altar.  
Needless to say that Liara did not exactly approve, and Shepard gave Grunt a new assignment, to take pictures from his seat next to Wrex and Bakara.  
They had others taking photos too, from people they had hired for it, to the reporters of many species – every magazine and news outlet in the galaxy wanted footage from the wedding of the commander Shepard, the human Spectre who had been essential in the fighting against the Reapers.

Following their wedding, they did not leave the asari homeworld before Liara had given birth to their firstborn daughter. After that Shepard accompanied the Normandy on diplomatic missions all around the galaxy, to ensure the peace between all the races. There was no one better for the job than the Savior of the galaxy himself.  
On his travels he saw that many races tried to work together even after the war – krogan and turian were able to form diplomatic relations and krogan started to tolerate salarians. Batarians, or what was left of them, started to rebuild and tried to leave their hatred for humans to the past.  
Although he did not command the ship anymore; he had given the command to the newest human Spectre Ashley Williams, who promised to take care of the ship that had belonged to the two greatest heroes The Systems Alliance had known – Captain David Edward Anderson and Commander John Shepard.  
When he travelled with Normandy, he smiled seeing that Ashley had kept most of the old crew – James and Cortez still bickered in the hangar, Kenneth Donnely, Gabriella Daniels and Chief Engineer Adams worked in Engineering, doctor Chakwas kept taking care of the med bay, and Joker, the best and only pilot of Normandy SR-2, flew the ship. His broken heart got somewhat mended but he kept a picture of EDI's mobile platform right next to him.  
“EDI would have wanted us to go on”, Joker had said to Shepard, looking at the picture of EDI's face, “and I want to keep flying the Normandy. Maybe this time we go somewhere nice, maybe a world of kittens. Not that much a fan of dipping into molten lava or parking into a colony of mutant zombies.”  
Shepard and Joker shared a laugh.

Shepard kept his word of not leaving Liara's side again – they were blessed with three beautiful baby girls, and he took his family with him to his diplomacy voyages and, when they were not traveling, stayed with them in their cozy little home in London.  
This was only the beginning of a happier life.


End file.
